The Hamas government in Gaza celebrated the graduation on Monday of
paramilitary camps geared at training high-school children “to follow in
the footsteps of the suicide martyrs.” The camps, titled “the pioneers of liberation,” are run by Hamas’s
ministries of education and interior. Some 13,000 students in grades
10-12 participated in the one-week training camps this year, compared to
5,000 last year when the program was launched, Israeli sources with
knowledge of the program said. The corps of instructors consists mainly of active members of Hamas’s
security forces, and the curriculum includes weapons training, first
aid, self defense, marching exercises and “security awareness” classes
on identifying Israeli spies. Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, Interior Minister Fathi Hammad and
Education Minister Usama Mzeini attended the graduation ceremony on
Monday, each delivering fiery speeches stressing the importance of
military training in developing a new generation of Palestinian
combatants.

“Beware this generation,” Haniyeh said,
addressing Israel. “This is a generation which knows no fear. It is the
generation of the missile, the tunnel and the suicide operations.”

The Hamas prime minister added that female
trainers are also on staff “to oversee the training of the young women
to follow in the footsteps of the female suicide operatives.”

Hammad, the interior minister, said the training was in preparation for the coming war with Israel.

“This generation is a sapling from God on earth. It will harvest the enemies of God and be the pride of all nations,” he said.

Hamdi Shaqura, deputy director of program
affairs at the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, a Gaza-based
watchdog, said that his organization issued no statement on the
training.

“To the best of my knowledge no other organization in Gaza issued a statement either,” he told The Times of Israel.

Omar Dawabha, an eleventh-grader who took part
in the training, was quoted on the website of Hamas’s interior ministry
saying that “he learned how to safeguard our rights and principles.”
Another student, Mohammed Abu Nar, addressed the Al-Aqsa Mosque in
Jerusalem at the graduation ceremony.

“We are the pioneers of liberation, we are coming to purify you from the Zionists,” he said.